St Zosima's repose day is today, the Feast of the Joy of All Who Sorrow Icon, as we all know.
Quick summary of this unusual Elder's life :
In the world, Verkhovsky Zachariah Vasilyevich (Bogdanovich), was born on March 24, 1768 in the village of Bulovitsa, Smolensk county, in the family of a nobleman.
His father, Bogdan Verkhovsky, rose to the rank of colonel in the regiment of the Smolensk gentry. Mother – Anna Ivanovna, from the noble family of Manevsky.
He was educated at home. Like all his brothers, he entered military service – on January 1, 1784, he was appointed a captain in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. Zachariah's father died on April 3, 1784. Zachariah inherited 2 villages. His mother died 2 years later.
At this time, he became acquainted with the hermits of the Roslavl forests, who lived under the command of the elder of the Ploshchansky monastery Adrian (Blinsky).
In 1788, Zachariah retired with the rank of lieutenant, sold his estate to his son-in-law and decided to devote himself to monastic life.
At first, he came to the Roslavl forests to the community of elder Adrian, but [the latter] had already left it and moved to the Konevetsky monastery. Zachariah, on the advice of the Basilisk monk, went to the Konevetsky monastery to Adrian.
The elder accepted him and appointed him a novice (Zachariah baked prosphora, sacristan). After the ordeal, Adrian tonsured Zachariah into monasticism with the name Zosima in honor of St. Zosima of Solovetsky. In 1792/93, at the invitation of Adrian, the Monk Basilisk came to Konevets, who became a friend of Zachariah.
Adrian built two cells for his students three versts from the monastery. Zosima and Basilisk spent 5 days in them, and on Saturday they came to the monastery for Vespers, and on Sunday after the liturgy they returned to their cells.
In 1799, Elder Adrian decided to take vows in the Great schema and left for the Moscow Simonov Monastery. Saying goodbye to his students, he blessed Zosima and Basilisk for desert life in Siberia, but they were more attracted to Athos. Three times they tried to go to the Holy Mountain, but each time they failed in this endeavor.
The friends went to Kiev, where, with the permission of the Metropolitan, they lived for two months in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, and then went to the Crimea and later to Mozdok. Due to the raids of the highlanders, they were escorted from there to Taganrog, from which they moved to Astrakhan, where they decided to fulfill the blessings of Elder Adrian and, having bought a horse, went to Siberia.
In the autumn of 1800, they reached Tobolsk, where Archbishop Varlaam (Petrov) gave them permission to settle on the territory of his diocese. After a year of wandering through the Siberian counties, in 1802 they settled in the forests of Kuznetsk County
In the taiga, forty versts from the nearest village, they dug a dugout. Food was brought to the hermits by one of the peasants of the nearest village. The following year, in the spring, they decided to leave the taiga, but got lost and spent about two weeks in the forest.
After leaving the taiga, Zosima and Basilisk settled in the Kuznetsk district. At the Srednyaya Ters River, fifty versts from Kuznetsk, the peasants [built]cut down two cells for them. The monks laid out a vegetable garden and engaged in needlework.
Once a year they were visited by a priest with the Holy Gifts. A small community of ascetics was formed around the hermits, among them was the disciple of St. Basilisk, the righteous Peter of Tomsk, whose biography was compiled by the Monk Zosima.
In 1822, through the efforts of Zosima and Basilisk, the Turin Nikolaevsky Convent was established in the Tobolsk province (with the blessing of the Tobolsk bishop, Zosima traveled to St. Petersburg to Metropolitan Filaret (Drozdov) to obtain the appropriate permission). For the community, Zosima wrote a special charter based on the cenobitic rules of Basil the Great (in early 1823, the elder again traveled to St. Petersburg to submit his Charter for approval by the Synod).
After the misunderstandings that arose there (some of the inhabitants accused Zosima of schism, embezzlement and harassment of the sisters), Father Zosima was dismissed by the decree of the Synod on January 24, 1825, "from the title of trustee and from all influence on the monastery" and moved to Moscow. With the blessing of Metropolitan Filaret, Zosima became a resident of the Chudov Monastery.
In 1826, near Moscow, in the Vereysky district, on the estate of the court counselor M. S. Bakhmeteva, with the blessing of Metropolitan Filaret Zosima, he organized a women's community in honor of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God "Hodegetria". Its first inhabitants were the nuns of the Turinsk Nikolaevsky Monastery, who remained faithful to their confessor during the conflict and followed him to Moscow.
Zosima lived in this desert until his death. He took care of the monastery, looking for benefactors for its maintenance. At the same time, having a craving for solitude, Zosima arranged a small cell for himself in the forest three versts from the desert
In it, as in the Konevetsky monastery under the supervision of his teacher, Elder Adrian, he lived 5 days a week, on Saturday he came to the desert for matins, and after Sunday liturgy he returned to his forest cell.
In it, from two elders from the Orel province, he took vows in the great schema.
He died on October 24, 1833, on the feast of the icon "Joy of All who Mourn." He was buried near the monastery chapel."